Residents Thinking Safety After Cathedral City Fire

CATHEDRAL CITY – Don Krell looks at what’s left from a fire that burned down this mobile home Sunday Night.

Pictures from a neighbor show flames engulfing the vacant home at the Tram View Mobile Home Park.

“Sirens close and then they quit. So we immediately look up out our front door window and we could see the flames as high as the palm trees,” says Krell.

The fire burned down a home and damaged two others.

No one injured.

Krell is like other people at the park who worry their homes are too close to each other.

An on-site manager, who didn’t want to be shown on television, says the buildings meet code.

He’s also concerned with the fire.

Retired Canadian fire fighter Bob Leighton says he’s not concerned.

“You take some residential places you maybe only have 6 feet between one and another and some places less than that,” says Leighton.

2010 has been filled with deadly mobile home fires, starting with a tragic and preventable fire in Palm Springs New Years day.

It has fire fighters preaching safety and awareness.

Mobile homes burn quickly.

“The paneling inside them is very thin. It’s very thin wood and it catches fire quite quickly where in a home you’ll have dry wall and so forth,” says Leighton.

“We used to be in Desert Hot Springs and we saw one go up and in just a matter of minutes it went up and the lady never made it through,” says Don Shields who also lives at the mobile home park.

Fire crews want people to make sure their smoke detectors work.

Also make sure that you have an escape plan.

Remember to keep flammables out of the house, regularly replace your furnace and check your electrical.

“The wiring. And I’ve checked it as much of it myself to make sure things are as safe as possible because you don’t have much of a chance it catches fire and you don’t have but a few seconds to get out of it,” says Krell.